It’s a horrible decision to make. I guess the current judge’s are tied. The anger really should be directed at the original judge who sentenced this pervert back in the 80’s.
This article disturbs me so much. I can’t ever recall a serial criminal of this extreme severity getting released back into society. If he gets away from that supervised custody there’s no doublt in my mind women will be raped and maybe even murdered. It’s gut wrenching to imagine what will happen.
Just as an example. Ted Bundy escaped a courtroom in Florida, recaptured and then escaped again from jail. In less than a few weeks time he staged an invasion of the Chi Omega sorority house raping & killing several women. A 12 year old girl was his last victim before recapture.
This rapist guy they are releasing could be every bit as dangerous. He’s got over 20 years of pent up sexual rage thats built up inside him. If he escapes from monitored/supervised release, God help whoever he attacks.
What if the judge back in the 80s also had his hands tied by sentencing laws?
Interesting thing about laws: the word isn’t Minority Report.
Could be. If. Look, if you want the laws changed, agitate for that. But you want to punish people based on your discomfort and apprehension. What other crimes should that apply to?
The news wasn’t that clear on how they plan to supervise this guy. It takes three men working 8 hour shifts to guard someone for a single day. Then you need other men to cover weekends. That’s some serious money to expend for one dude. The GPS bracelets are better than nothing. But criminals have found ways to remove them, commit crimes and then reattach the bracelet. I linked a news report from last month in the OP.
I don’t know about the original case. Was it a guilty plea? I work often on sex crimes. We consider it a win/win when there is a guilty plea. The suspect goes to jail and the victim does not have to testify. That often means the sentence is a lot shorter than what could happen after a trial. Which might seem to be a bad thing to someone outside the case. But most victims would like to avoid testifying. And if you do something like make a mandatory life sentence for all violent rapes then there is no incentive to plead guilty.
Laws were changed in California. If this jerk was sent to prison in the 1980’s, it must have been before the 3 strikes law was passed. Of course, that would just mean that the state would be trying to push him out to save on medical costs or something.
True. Rape is often described as a positive, life re-affirming event. :rolleyes:
It’s a horrible trauma, but we shouldn’t go from there to assuming a woman’s life is ruined after it happens. This is just one of those things people always say.
I believe it would help if state legislatures would give judges the option of adding a permanent parole option to convicted serial rapists.
I would also support life time drug testing for serial rapists who may later be required to take medication(s) to control their depraved and violent desires. Are they taking their medication or not? If not, it’s a parole violation.
horrible traumas are… horribly traumatic. By it’s very nature such trauma will follow it’s victim forever.
This person has a documented track record of unreformed chaos and needs to be separated from society. If the legal system fails in this regard then it puts both sides in danger.
Do either of you actually know someone who was raped? The mental trauma, social stigma, selfworth, and resulting problems with trust and initimacy can and often are devastating for the victim. Treatment for victims of rape has a dishearteningly low efficacy in returning the victim to a baseline state of mental health, and persistent problems with depression and anxiety throughout the victim’s life are the norm.
A serial rapist–and especially a predatory rapist who has violated upon dozens of women–is almost certainly a sociopath, lacks and remorse or genuine empathy for his victims, and will very likely commit the crime again given the opportunity. We do not need this kind of shitbag in society. Unforunately, laws written by people with the opinions like those above are shockingly lenient toward predatory sexual crimes, and so here we are.
Yes. But please take note of the statement aceplace57 made:
Not “he traumatized a lot of women.” Not "he hurt a lot of women. “He destroyed a lot of women’s lives.” However sympathetic and well-intentioned that statement may be, it’s wrong to say a woman’s life is destroyed or ruined or over following a rape. It doesn’t help. If anything that kind of thinking and that kind of statement makes things worse for women who’ve been raped because it sends the message that they’re damaged goods. In the interest of correctly emphasizing what an awful violation rape is, at some point we started overstating it in a way that is bad for people who will need to try to put their lives back together afterward. Some people may never put that kind of horrible trauma behind them, but most will live. So we should be careful not to talk about them like they’re this close to being dead or worse than dead.
By destroyed I meant spending the rest of their lives in fear. Terrified in every dark parking lot and not even feeling completely safe in their own home.
Any violent crime victim suffers that loss of security and confidence. You hear a noise outside and dismiss it as the wind. Bad things happen to other people. That mind set is ripped away if you’re the one beaten to a bloody pulp in your own bedroom. Add in a sexual assault and it compounds the sense of fear.
Something happened to my first cousin. She never told anyone in the family what it was. But a very confidant and out going lady that I knew growing up. Changed after her divorce. She couldn’t stand being alone. She bought a house trailer and had it setup on property behind her dad’s house. She was raising her daughter and working as a bookkeeper/office manager. Even then she’d often walk the two hundred feet to her mom & dads to sleep at night. That fear never went away. She died in 2006 without telling anyone what had happened.
I was raped. It did not NOT NOT ruin my life. I have not NOT NOT spent the rest of my life in fear. It’s very demeaning to me that you or anyone would assume that something out of my control that happened to me is going to ruin my life or make me live in fear.
I was speaking generally of any violent crime victim and what it did to my close family member. I realize every person man or woman deals with something like this differently. Even the time required to recover varies person by person.
I have not personally been attacked. But, I am growing more fearful as I watch my neighborhood decline. We had a man shot dead 3 streets over from my mine. He was found in the street. Our postman was held up and robbed a couple years ago. That got our mail service stopped for almost 2 weeks. So far my street is still ok. I occasionally hear gunshots at night. Not sure from where. I think a street or two over. We have a lot of old time residents that have been here for forty years. Every time one dies the house becomes a rent house and that drags down the neighborhood even more. Eventually I’ll be forced to sell and get out before I get victimized.
And for some women it is - how about being unable to have or enjoy sex ever again? How about being afraid to be alone at home ever? Afraid to be alone outside the home ever? Unable to walk to your car in the dark? Crippling fear of males?
I think it’s fair to say, “rape is awful, and has varying and lasting psychological effects on its victims.”
Making the blanket statement “if you are raped, your life will be destroyed,” not only refuses to acknowledge the differences in experience, but pretty much implies that if you are raped, you will forever be broken, and if you tell anyone about it, they will forever see you as broken. This is in no way helpful to victims. Let the individuals define their own needs.